Age is Only a Number

How many times have you heard people say “Age is only a number”? Probably lots. Individuals who spit up this phrase are most probably either very young or they want to sell you something. They say it to comfort you, or to reassure themselves, or you really do look acceptable “for your age” and that’s their way of telling you.

Well friends, I just turned 55, I feel great most of the time – physically, mentally, and emotionally. But let’s be honest, getting old sucks!

10 years ago (it seems like yesterday… okay, the day before yesterday) when I turned 45, one day on the beach this absolutely perfect specimen of a suntanned, muscular lifeguard hit on me. Of all the young hot beauties on the beach he picked me. I was excited and flattered, of course. We had a one-night fling which I will never forget.

Today, I don’t wear a bikini anymore and even in a one-piece bathing suit I don’t feel like showing myself on the beach. My body has changed. Although I am still told that I am attractive, I know what the years have done to me. I don’t look like this anymore. Maybe I just shouldn’t care. But being aesthetic was always important to me, whether it concerned myself or others.

Growing old means: your hair loses its pigment and turns gray, on the whole body, wherever you [still] have hair; on the other hand, women suddenly have to pluck stubble from around their mouth and chin, a place where they never had visible hair before. The skin turns wrinkly, saggy and gets old-age spots. Your once youthly perfect nails morph to gross, protruding pieces of ugliness (I’m not there yet but I’ve seen it on old people). Your eyes lose their shine. Body functions aren’t what they used to be. Getting up in the morning takes longer and might be accompanied by back pain or stiff limbs. Still think getting old is just a number?

But there are also a few good things that come with age: Learning to focus on what makes us feel good and being consequent enough to get rid of whatever and whoever is bad for us. The ability to enjoy the moment and be genuinely thankful for every day on which we are able to see the sun rise and set. Being able to help others and to enjoy the rewarding feeling and the sense of meaning it gives us.

And here is the best: Falling in love is possible at any age! And it does happen. At all ages.

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9 Comments

heila, Tubularsock just doesn’t look into the mirror. The view in a mirror is a reversed image. How can you evaluate what you see backwards?

Sometimes Tubularsock stands behind the mirror and looks at the back of the mirror to see if the view is direct. To same you time, there isn’t a view from the back of the mirror except the coating that makes the mirror a mirror.

So, as Tubularsock proceeds in his day someone will say, “you may want to comb your hair Tubularsock”, so Tubularsock does. Life is so simple . . .

Tubularsock doesn’t really think that much about age. The only rule of thumb in Tubularsock’s opinion is, take advantage in what you have when you have it . You only have the present moment PERIOD. Drop the past and waste not on the future. All the rest is just what it is . . . Happiness IS BEING.

I don’t really think that much about age either but I have to face it every morning when I look in the mirror. All in all I am not a person who lives in the past or has regrets about what is gone and has gone by. I get up every morning with lots of energy and with a positive mood and with lots of things I am interested in. But sometimes I just hate what the years do to my outer appearance and that’s a problem many women have. Look at all the plastic treatments done today. Happiness IS BEING – yesss, you are so right.